Legislators and other people decend the steps leading to the House chamber at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock after the House recessed Tuesday. It marked the the end of the 100-day session, with Republicans in control of the House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction. (ASSOCIATED PRESS / Danny Johnston)

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The Arkansas Legislature on Tuesday wrapped up its first session since Reconstruction in which Republicans have controlled both chambers by giving final approval to the state’s $4.9 billion budget plan for the coming fiscal year.

The House and Senate quickly approved identical versions of the proposed Revenue Stabilization Act, which sets spending priorities based on expected revenues, before recessing until May 17 to formally adjourn this year’s session. Gov. Mike Beebe signed the bills into law later Tuesday.

The House approved the Revenue Stabilization Act on a 77-15 vote. The Senate approved the measure on a 28-6 vote. The legislation calls for funding increases for the state’s Medicaid program and public schools, and includes funding for a 2 percent cost-of-living raise for state employees.

The votes mark the end of the 100-day session, with Republicans in control of the House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction. Lawmakers during the session approved legislation allowing the state to use federal Medicaid money to purchase private insurance for thousands of low-income residents, a package of tax cuts that will eventually cost the state more than $140 million annually and a $125 million financing plan to lure a steel mill to northeast Arkansas.

“Any one of those things by itself is a huge deal,” House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, told reporters Tuesday morning. “For this body to tackle all three of those things in one session is pretty remarkable.”

Senate President Michael Lamoureux said the session showed that both parties could work together with Republicans controlling the Legislature and a Democrat in the governor’s office.

“We probably learned it was harder to do than when we were criticizing those who were trying to do it before us,” Lamoureux, R-Russellville, said. “But we were able to work with the Democratic Party and the Republican Party to make it work.”

The session, however, was marked early on by clashes over social issues. Lawmakers overrode Beebe’s veto of a pair of new abortion restrictions and legislation requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.

Beebe also vetoed three bills Tuesday aimed at overhauling the state Board of Election Commissioners, including one that would have effectively fired the current members of the panel.

The abortion bills include one that bans the procedure in most cases 12 weeks into a pregnancy and another that prohibits it 20 weeks into a pregnancy. Opponents of the 12-week ban have sued in court to block it from being enforced.

Beebe cited the override of those vetoes as a disappointment with the session.

“Did I get everything I wanted? Of course not,” Beebe said after signing into law the legislation setting up the “private option” for expanding health insurance. “There were bills that were passed that I vetoed that I thought should not have been passed, but that’s the part of the process. Nobody gets their way all the time.”

Legislators also successfully pushed for expanded gun rights in the state, enacting measures to allow churches and college campuses to permit concealed handguns in their facilities.

The passage last week of the private option, touted as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health care law, cleared the way for lawmakers to approve the tax cuts and finalize the state’s budget. Beebe has said a substantial amount of the tax cuts could be paid for by savings from the private option, which supporters say will cut down on hospitals’ uncompensated care costs.

The tax cut package included breaks for manufacturers, farmers and armed service members. It also included cuts in the state’s taxes on income and capital gains. In addition to those cuts, lawmakers also approved Beebe’s proposal to cut the state’s sales tax on groceries if bond obligations or desegregation payments to three Little Rock-area school districts decline over a six-month period.

The private option plan sharply divided Republicans, who had won control of the Legislature partly on a vow to fight the federal health care overhaul at the state level. Republican supporters of the plan promoted it as a conservative approach to reforming Medicaid.

“They worked together across party lines,” Beebe said. “Somebody could take a lesson from this in a place about 1,000 miles east of here called Washington D.C.”